


Dark Waters and Sunshine

by The_Twinless_Twin



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AkuRoku Day, Angst, Boats and Ships, M/M, Sea Salt Ice Cream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 00:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11794605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Twinless_Twin/pseuds/The_Twinless_Twin
Summary: Roxas is gone, and there's nothing Axel can do about it... Except maybe join him.





	Dark Waters and Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first AkuRoku so please be kind, comments, kudos, and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated   
> I do not own Disney, Square, or Spiky Hair, nor do I own any of the Kingdom Hearts games or characters, and if I did things would be a lot different   
> Happy AkuRoku day 2017!!!

Axel sat with his back pressed to the cool, rough bark of the only sycamore tree that grew that close to the water where they would sail every summer. His eyes red and dry, his throat scratchy, and a half empty bottle of Pincer Vodka dangles only barely from his shaking fingers.

His once vibrant hair hangs limp in the late august heat as his head slowly falls back against the wood with a soft thump. “You know Rox, it’s kinda funny isn’t it? How just a couple weeks ago we were on top of the world, sailing the seven seas and taking on everything they threw at us, invincible, just like we always were.” His voice was raspy and he had to stop for a moment, looking over to the smooth rock and fresh dirt beside him his thoughts wandered to that day on the open water…

 

The sun sparkled off of the water as bright bubbling laughter fought its way up and out of Roxas’s throat, the wind rustling through his hair affectionately as he worked to tighten the line. As he hopped back down to the deck he grinned up at Axel, teeth sparkling in the bright light and eyes full of excitement. Roxas had gotten the boat for his birthday just a few weeks earlier, this only being their second time taking her out he had already christened her Oblivion and they were still getting used to how differently she handled from his first sailboat, Oathkeeper. 

 

“Hey Axe, ready for a lunch break before we try and take her out of the bay? I brought sandwiches, Flamin Hot Cheetos and I even smuggled out some sea-salt ice cream bars” Axel stretched with a smirk.

 

“Oh really? Well then, I guess I can’t really say no, now can I?” He stepped closer to the smaller boy and ruffled his hair in a familiar gesture, “Yeah, let’s grab some lunch.” Roxas wriggled out from beneath Axel’s hand in a familiar motion, blond spikes easily springing back into place as he heads below deck to grab their lunches, smile still stretched across his face. Little did he know it would be the last time they ate together. 

 

“Hey, I’ll see you soon buddy.” Axel smiles sadly at the space his Roxas would normally fill, blue eyes and spiky blond hair flashing across his vision for the most fleeting of moments as he stood up and made his way across the cool grass and hot sand, towards the lonely little boat house with faded and peeling paint. 

 

As they lay spread out on the deck full as could be they plotted out their day’s course on the map spread between them, every shoal rock along their small stretch of coast laid out before them. It would be a simple trip, and it would be fast too, taking only a little over half a day to reach their destination and get back home. Roxas looked up from the lines of the map only to find himself caught up in those emerald green eyes that seemed to remind him so much of the sea and everything he loved about it, but as soon as Axel looked up at him with his long pale fingers stretched out over the map his trance was broken and he quickly agreed to whatever his friend had suggested. 

 

Axel made quick work of the small lock that hung from the door, barely keeping it shut against the wind that was starting to pick up, no longer seeming friendly and peaceful to the redhead but tempting and dark. So he gave into temptation, any lingering thoughts that said maybe this wasn’t such a good idea brushed to the very depths of his consciousness by the twisting air. His gangly limbs dragging him and his half empty bottle into the small shed before working to remove the small cover from the boat held within in order to release it from the stomach of this shaky shack. 

 

In his head Axel could see Roxas that morning as they worked together to free Oblivion, excitement running freely between the two of them, that extra sparkle in the blue eyed boy’s eyes bright and clear as day to Axel as emerald met saphire across the narrow deck, laughter and quiet jokes filling the spaces between them. He remembered the thrill of when they had finally gotten her free and leapt to her dry safety. He remembered how that safety had been a net of lies. 

 

Even in his inebriated state it doesn’t take him long to get Oathkeeper out and onto the relatively calm waters of the bay, even if he is doing it alone for the first time in his existence. The reason he is doing so alone weighs heavy in his heart, surrounded by guilt and depression. As Oathkeeper slowly made its way across the water her lone sailor bit back sobs without tears. Her boy was empty and alone, and she knew that should never have happened. 

 

Why they chose to take Oblivion instead of Oathkeeper to their secret space Axel couldn’t remember, but he knew that he hadn’t fought much when Roxas had suggested taking the newer boat, even though neither of them were very comfortable with sailing her yet. They could feel the way she moved and hear the way she creaked in the water but they would never understand her like they understood Oathkeeper. 

 

Axel ran on autopilot as he guided the small craft out through the mouth of the bay, the sadness eating away at him as he called out to his Roxas only for the only answer he got to be the slow lapping of the short waves against her hull and the wind rustling through the sails, gently pushing her along. As he sailed towards their special spot Oathkeeper’s creeks and movements seemed sluggish and melancholy, echoing Axel’s entire being in those moments. 

 

As her hull scraped up on the sand in her favorite spot of their special spot Axel was once again transported back in time. Back to when he and his Roxas were last there. 

 

As Oblivion scraped up on the rougher stretch of beach, opposite to Oathkeeper’s normal station Roxas jumped down to the sand and started to haul her a bit further up on the beach while Axel gathered up their remaining food in the small basket the blond boy had brought it in. As his bare feet finally hit the stinging sand Roxas did a cartwheel that planted him directly in front of the taller boy.

 

“So, do you want to snack or swim first?” he asked with a devilish smirk hiding underneath his bright smile. Axel raised an eyebrow at the blond. 

 

“Well that depends, do I really have a choice in the matter?” Warm hands found their way to the handle of the basket as Roxas shook his head.

 

“Most certainly not Mr.Todd” Axel smiled as the older of the two took the basket and ran with it up to their hammocks. Every time they came here Roxas asked the same question, Axel replied with his question, and Roxas replied in the negative looking awfully cheery under his so called sad outer appearance. Axel would laugh and they would go swimming. After that they would lay in their hammocks and snack on whatever was left of their lunches as they looked up at the clouds or the stars and talked about everything and anything. 

 

However that day was different. Yes they went swimming and snacked in their hammocks as they dried off, but they didn’t talk much. The fact that this might be their last trip hanging over their heads. Not that they could have known in any way what was to come, but because Axel’s dad had been threatening to send him to Wisconsin. A place full of cows and wide open spaces with a distinct lack of large bodies of water, and most importantly, lacking one vital piece of his life. His Roxas. 

 

As the hours dragged on it turned from sunshine to twilight and from twilight to dusk. They lay there for as long as they felt they could before slowly standing and heading back to the boat, the smiles on their faces only for each other. In the near non existent lighting provided by the stars they made their way back out onto open water, behind them the waves were gentle and the skies were clear but up ahead the waters warred against each other and the stars were blanketed by dark clouds.

 

Axel shook his head and forced his eyes to focus on the rope in front of him, quickly straightening out the course of the boat before she could find herself up on the rocks. He planned to get to their secret place, but after that he had no plans. All of his plans for the future had always included Roxas in one way or another, and without him Axel was lost. He didn’t know how to live without his cheery blond anymore. 

 

When Axel looked out over the water the last thing he expected to see was the face of a young girl looking back at him. So he did what any rational seafarer would do. He swore and looked away, rubbing at his eyes before he turned back to look again. But the face was gone from the water, left to haunt his thoughts at the back of his mind. He tried to shake it off, tried to think of other things, but his thoughts simply turned to another loss. One that had happened a long time ago, fourteen years ago to be exact. A younger girl named Xion had started following him and Roxas about. They would be polite and Axel could even remember a number of times when he had bought the ice cream. But one day she had disappeared, her small toy boat washed up on the shore, all in one piece, but without it’s small captain. 

 

Just like what had happened with Roxas. Oblivion had found her way back to the sandy bay but there was no sign of Roxas anywhere, Axel had ran from the place where he had washed up onto the shore, late in the night with the far reaches of the storm. He had searched the stupid boat and the rest of the bay for hours in a panic, by the time someone from the town had ventured outside into the weather and found him he had been hysterical. At the young age of 22 he had lost his entire world to the one thing he had loved almost as much. 

 

When Oathkeeper slid into her favorite spot in the world Axel looked up in shock, he had no idea how long it had been since he set off, nor how exactly he had managed to actually find his way there in his current state but there he was. The worn wooden sign they had made together clearly stated the inlet’s secret name. Clocktower Cove looked much the same as it had the last time they were there, the only difference being the increased amount of driftwood on the small beach. Axel slowly made his way down from the wood planks to the cool sand below, his bottle now only a quarter full. 

 

As he fell to the sand his mind once more turned itself towards soft skin and the howls of the wind as it whipped the water surrounding them into a flurry of crashing waves. As the storm approached he and Roxas quickly came up with a plan, it wasn’t the best or most reliable but it was what they had and so it would have to do. They quickly worked to tie down the sails and anything that might slide around and get in their way, deciding it would be bad luck and also increase the chances of Oblivion smashing onto the rocks the opted to not head below but rather to tie themselves to the main mast with lengths of rope, that way they might get knocked around but they wouldn’t be thrown overboard and hopefully they would be able to see and threats to the boat. 

 

An ugly sob worked its way up out of his throat and his legs gave out beneath him, so he kneeled there in the cold sand and cried. Young Axel, once so bright and warm, would never have that light again, his warmth a thing of the past as he sat and shivered. 

 

He woke up frozen and alone in the sand as water lapped at his feet and ankles in the middle of the night. He sat up with a great deal of pain and blurry vision and turned to throw the bottle of liquor into the cool water with hot anger. That anger drained out him as fast as it had come as he dragged himself to his feet, stumbling back to Oathkeeper and pushing her back into the water before climbing aboard. He supposed he was going home. 

 

Axel was trying his hardest to keep Oblivion heading in the right direction as waves crashed over the bow. Whenever lightning flashed across the sky he could make out Roxas, multi-tasking as he tried to pin down a sail that had come loose as well as bailing water from the stairwell leading down to the heart of the small boat. During one such flash of lightning Axel saw what Roxas could not, that a large wave, easily fourteen feet tall was readying itself to slam down across their small sailing boat. He screamed into the howling wind but it was of no use. Roxas couldn’t hear a word he said.

 

As he sailed into the night Axel glared up at the night sky, and when the waters became rougher and the wind began to howl he raged back. When he saw the storm clouds gathering over the seas in front of him his face twisted into a snarl and he swiftly set to work. He lashed down the sails nice and tight and spread the tarpaulin across the fore-deck before making his way back to the aft of the small but sturdy boat. He tied no rope around his waist. 

 

Time seemed to slow down as Axel watched the wave crash over the front of the boat, slamming into Roxas and flooding the deck, pounding against the paneling. When the water finally cleared he couldn’t see his Roxas anywhere. His rope lay across the decks wet surface, cut clean in two. Without thinking of his own safety or of Oblivion Axel untied his rope and leapt into the water, despite the fact that he had no idea of where Roxas could be, that he couldn’t see so much as three feet in front of him and that that familiar shock of blond hair was nowhere in sight. Axel was forced under time and time again by the large waves, and as he finally began to lose consciousness he saw two familiar faces. 

 

Axel was angry. It should have been him tying down that sail, Roxas should have been steering. Axel was stronger, taller, faster. He might have been able to keep himself on the boat under the pressure of that wave but Roxas, his Roxas never stood a chance. So he did the only thing he could think of as he soloed the storm. He lashed the tiller in place with a length of rope and he went to stand on the front of the deck. 

 

This time when the 14 foot wave crashed over the deck Axel saw it coming. This time when the water slammed over the small boat Axel went with it willingly. This time, he joined his friends at the bottom of the sea.

 

The locals never really knew what those two boys were to each other. Some knew them as best friends, some knew them as more. At least they thought they did. The truth was even the boys didn’t really know what they were to each other. The only thing anyone ever did know was that being apart was too much for the older of the two, because two weeks after Oblivion made its second and finally journey across the sea, Oathkeeper appeared alone on the shore, directly after a record smashing storm the night before, empty and alone. To this day the locals have left the three boats washed up on the shore as a memorial to the three young souls who had given their lives to the sea. Each of the three flew a flag, one black, one yellow, one red, but all three had one thing in common, they each had a specific number of blue ice cream bars sewn into the middle. Three for black, two for yellow, and one for red. 

 

Those superstitious sailors of the day say that on sunny days you can hear the laughter of two or three, carried on the wind, and that during the roughest of storms you can hear the screams of the desperate, calling out to each other in fear and worry. They also say that the small cove with the even smaller wooden sign, faded past its years, is the sacred place of two friends, who will be together through eternity. And that should you and someone special come to this place, and share a simple fruit from the tree that sits closest to the water, your fates would be forever intertwined. 


End file.
